Does reading a lot make you dream more?

[corina]

Or maybe remember more.I have often wondered this. I dream far more way out and imaginative dreams than most people I know. And I also read more than most. Any friends who read a lot also report convoluted and imaginative dreams with plots, sub plots, a cast of characters both in their real life and imaginary folk brought in for use in the dream.

 

What are your thoughts?

 

I also find I dream more or remember more if I am reading a murder mystery.

Edited April 22, 2010 by corina
Changed title

[chaliepud]

I was just thinking that the other day, I read a fair amount and compared to family and friends my dreams are definitely more wierd and wonderful, and particularly since I moved into the fantasy genre. I have a rubbish memory in general but can describe many dreams past and present with accuracy. I also regularly revisit old dreams and continue them, very strange .... Maybe a study needs to be done ...

[AbielleRose]

That's a very good question, Corina! I think reading does definitely affect our dreaming in many ways. Sometimes a character from something I'm reading will pop into my dreams and take the shape of how I pictured them in my head while reading but it usually only happens when I read an intense fantasy that is set in a world I fall in love with or thriller that scares the heck out of me.

 

When the last Harry Potter book came out I had tons of dreams/ nightmares about it. Voldemort is not someone you want to have stuck in your subconcious!

[pickle]

I think if you have a vivid imagination you dreams will be more vivid anyway,as you read you excersize that imagination by immersing yourself in character situation and plot.

 

I don't always remember my dreams but when I do they are always very wierd, a combination of things triggered from books, the tv and real life, my most recent involving a Russian buying eggs speaking to my dad in French and getting mixed in with Spanish and being in Spain but looking like Salisbury (oh yeah the eggs weren't the chicken variety and for some reason I had them in a tesco bag).

[Cookie]

I think you might be on to something Corina. I'm always having crazy dreams that I can remember years afterwards. My sister (who reads nearly as much as I do) also has very crazy vivid dreams.

[chesilbeach]

I read a lot, but I have to say, I rarely remember my dreams, maybe just one or two a year. But, I also rarely read in bed, so I wonder if it's the reading just before sleep that affects people, not the amount or the genre of books they read?

[Chrissy]

I think you may be right. I'm going to do a completely unscientific poll amongst friends and family and see how it is for them.

 

p.s. I changed the title to the one you wanted.

[iamnotreal]

Good question! It probably affects our dreams because if you read before bed, then it's likely that you'll be thinking of its plot as you drop off. A lot of the time, the things in your dreams correspond to whatever you were thinking of when you fall asleep.

 

I've had some dreams where I was a wizard like in the Harry Potter universe. I was at my nan's house (though it wasn't actually her house) and I broke one of her bowls. I took out my wand and muttered "Reparo," and it flew back together. I liked that dream.

 

So I'm going to say that reading before bed or having the book's story on your mind before dropping off definitely affects our dreams.

[Denise]

Or maybe remember more.I have often wondered this. I dream far more way out and imaginative dreams than most people I know.

...Yea,blimey you sure do have imaginative dreams from what you have described to me Corina.As you know I rarely dream and the ones I do have(which is rare) are bloody weird anyway..

[corina]

I think if you have a vivid imagination you dreams will be more vivid anyway,as you read you excersize that imagination by immersing yourself in character situation and plot.

 

 

I think this is true.

 

I also agree chesilbeach and iamnotreal about reading before you go to bed, which is something I always do. This probably adds to the vivid dreams.

 

ETA: Denise please don't write about my dreams on here, lol, the one about Jacob from New Moon especially. I may get banned. Not surprisingly, that dream was in part about a book I had been reading, the name of which escapes me now.

Edited April 22, 2010 by corina

[Nienna]

Yep, a lot of the time dreams are like a reflection of what you have been doing and thinking of during the day, so naturally if your mind has been occupied with moulding the universe you enter in your book, your dreams will be busier, and will probably include characters and scenery described in your reading.

 

Also, if you remember dreams more often it means that you've woken up during the REM stage of sleep (which is when you dream) - you are ONLY likely to remember dreams if you wake up during this stage. I'm no scientist, but I think I remember that if you wake up before your sleep cycle is complete (like during the REM stage) that you're more tired during the day. Conversely, if you don't remember many dreams, it probably means you're sleeping well, or at least deeply! Would it be true that most people who can recall vivid dreams on here are regularly tired or don't sleep well?

[corina]

Yep, a lot of the time dreams are like a reflection of what you have been doing and thinking of during the day, so naturally if your mind has been occupied with moulding the universe you enter in your book, your dreams will be busier, and will probably include characters and scenery described in your reading.

 

Also, if you remember dreams more often it means that you've woken up during the REM stage of sleep (which is when you dream) - you are ONLY likely to remember dreams if you wake up during this stage. I'm no scientist, but I think I remember that if you wake up before your sleep cycle is complete (like during the REM stage) that you're more tired during the day. Conversely, if you don't remember many dreams, it probably means you're sleeping well, or at least deeply! Would it be true that most people who can recall vivid dreams on here are regularly tired or don't sleep well?

 

Thanks for that Nienna.

 

hmmm...regularly tired or don't sleep well. All of the above. I am a night shift worker and nearly always tired.

[Cookie]

I do feel tired during the day often...

[Kreader]

Well I'm on this forum so I am an avid reader. I remember some dreams. Some were quite entertaining, funny even. Others were weird, surreal and some scarey. I've had repeat dreams and dreams sequels. I know that I dream in full colour, apparently not everyone does so. I've dreamed I was flying many times but I wasn't a bird or decked out in a cape with arms outstreched like a comic book super hero. I was sitting so I'd guest it'd be true to say I was levitating and no I did not have that yoga cross legged pose. The chase, being hunted dreams started out scarey until I got fed up and turned around to chase the predator who became the prey instead of me. It was years later when they had Freddy Krugger in that horror sequel with the dream warriors that could manipulate their dreams that I realised I sometimes consciously do this.

 

I do remember waking up one night when I was younger that 10 have dreamt of huge dinosaurs trashing the place and it made so sense to hide because you'd get squashed anyway. I cried. The Jurrasic Park movie had not been made then and I hadn't read the book either. We did sometimes see Godzilla on tv (the man in a suit), Japanese black and white old scare movies.

[Denise]

ETA: Denise please don't write about my dreams on here, lol, the one about Jacob from New Moon especially. I may get banned. Not surprisingly, that dream was in part about a book I had been reading, the name of which escapes me now.

Lol...

Wasnt it Twilight?

[corina]

Lol...

Wasnt it Twilight?

 

Lordy, I am not that daft.

 

This is going to bug me now. The book was about a lady who was a doctor, caught up in her mundane life, her father or someone dies and she goes back to organise the funeral in her home town. There she meets the boy she dated at 16 but while she has moved on, he is not that attractive at all now and looking the worst for wear from a life of booze and cigs. Nonetheless, she has a brief affair with him.

[Ooshie]

Like kreader, I always dream in full colour; I also feel everything and taste everything etc. I don't like the feel of flying at all! I do dream a lot, and I have certain dreams that recur again and again, especially when I'm stressed. I can usually remember my dreams when I wake up although I forget most of them during the course of the day, and some dreams can affect the way I feel for the whole day.

 

And yes, I am permanently exhausted!

[Kylie]

I dream more vividly when I'm tired. I have dreamt twice though about finding a rare and expensive Trixie Belden book for just a couple of dollars. Wishful thinking!

[Skírnir]

I do not think that how much I dream is affected by how much I read. Frankly, researchers say that everyone dreams about 2-3 dreams per night - we just don't remember them all. I usually remember at least one of mine every time I wake up and I must however say that the books certainly affect my imagination.

 

One memorable dream to wake up from was e.g. one where I was, along with the rest of the world, trapped in an enormous space ship along with Voldemort (and his very handsom son, I might add!) who was plotting to blow up the moon. He had even convinced everyone that this was necessary, though I can not remember why, it was about to collide with the earth or something like that.

Eventually, it blew up and the tiny bits of it spread all over earth's surface and everything was covered in red/greenish light until all went dark.

 

A weird dream, with more random twists on it but like I say - books definitely affect the dreams. Too much Harry Potter for me I guess.

[MountainGirl]

Wow! I had a dream about a book I was reading late into the night! I just woke up from it! And I too always have lengthy, detailed dreams, and my friend/family think I've gone over the edge when I tell them my dreams because they are so vivid and detailed! I never really thought about the connection before, but you're right! I have these dreams while the semester is in too, which I do not have time to free-read... so maybe theres a connection between just using your brains more...

[BookJumper]

I dream every night, in Burtonesque Technicolor; in the morning I can remember a dream or two at least, and they're usually nightmares. Without fail I wake up in the middle of dreams when my alarm goes off, and spend the rest of the day feeling shattered. I also know for a fact that my reading material influences my oniric activity, to the point that I've stopped reading before bed pretty much completely as I seem to have become impressionable with age - even sociological YA 'horror' such as Daniel Water's Generation Dead will get me envisioning the coming Apocalypse in my sleep...

 

... so textbook, aren't I ?